Too Stubborn to Die

As the beams of aether crackled above, forming streams of deathly energy that enveloped the settlement, the blue flames that lit up so many of the undead grew brighter, and the auras that emanated from them grew suffocating. Despair swept across the land, and anybody caught within the radius of the ascendant undead suffered dearly.

“Aaargh! So heavy!” Soldiers gasped as they fought against the crippling power of undeath, some even struggling to remain standing as the power grew stronger.

Fighting back against the aura of undeath, Aaron forced a burst of his own aether outward, cleansing the land around himself and granting relief to some nearby defenders as he pushed himself to new heights in hope of fending off the undead.

A moment later, Terry and Soohyun joined him, fighting back a wave at his side with tremendous strikes, blowing them to pieces and battering them back desperately.

“So many!” Soohyun huffed as she swung her massive blade around, cutting through dozens at a time.

“You can take shelter behind Terry, darling!” Terry said as he gritted his teeth, clearly struggling to keep up with the army crashing against them.

“When will you give up!” Aaron roared at their side, throwing his fists as fast as possible.

But despite their valiant efforts, it was clear that their lines were faltering, even if the aura of cleansed aether Aaron was radiating was helping those nearby. There were simply too many compromised points of defense, and every second another turret was getting taken out as the undead threw themselves at them.

With each passing second, the scene was increasingly chaotic. No one was willing to give an inch, even if it cost them their lives. They had seen the mindless undead, and that wasn’t a future anyone was willing to let their world fall to, and as beaten down as they were, the defenders rallied around the terrifying fate they saw.

“Give no ground!” Warriors shouted as they dug deep, pulling on whatever they had left to push back against the legion.

Seeing their courage and willingness to sacrifice, Aaron felt an even greater desire to push back and defend the settlement, wading forward and focusing entirely on offense as he fought back against them.

He no longer cared if he took a hit. He would heal, and he could eat. Dodging and phasing was a waste of time and energy he could be using to destroy the undead.

Aaron brow bent as he fueled his aether further, using his core and mana anchors to convert mana into aether, but instead of trying to expand his aura, which simply wasn’t strong enough to overcome the obelisks, he used it to draw the undead toward him, like a glowing beacon of aether they needed to corrupt.

Like moths to a flame, thousands of them were drawn to this power even as he fiddled with it, trying to enhance it further. But even that wasn’t enough, as many were still getting past him and attacking from other directions

“Concentrate your fire on me!” He shouted.

“Are you insane?”

“Do it!”

Soon, Skills were raining down upon Aaron, destroying the undead en masse, but also ripping his body apart and opening new wounds every second.

But Aaron had plenty of food and pushed his core to generate more energy as he furiously healed.

He even tanked the flaming undead as they poured toward him, attempting to corrupt his aura.

Trait Awoken: Beacon of Life

You are a stalwart defender of the planes of life and death; your very presence fights back the corrupting nature of undeath to maintain the balance.

He felt the power of his aura explode, and he no longer needed to concentrate on it to empower it. But still, apocalyptic legions of the undead were attacking from all around, and the corrupted aether from the obelisks was only getting stronger.

Even with a new Trait, it was hopeless. There were simply too many of them, and their fate had been sealed. Aaron looked around as he fought. Despite how many he had taken out, it barely looked like he had caused a dent in the enemy forces.

They weren’t going to be given a choice. They were going to have to retreat back to the World Core.

Worst still, their enemy seemed to know it. As the battle swayed further in the favor of the undead, as the defenders stood on their last legs, the undead seemed to grow increasingly violent, pulsing with aether, and pressing against them with increased might.

All Aaron could do was scream into the abyss of the dead, desperately trying to draw on more power as he tried to hold them back. But there was nothing left to draw upon, and his allies were wavering.

Shit. We’re going to have to fall back. If we stand and fight, we’ll lose everything!

Even as his fists flew at the enemy, blowing them to pieces, he readied to call the retreat. All he could do was hope that not only he and the other elites would survive it.

“Everyone!” He shouted. “We need to—”

But Aaron’s voice caught in his throat as he sensed a powerful gathering of energy beyond the horizon. Was this just the undead vanguard? Could they possibly have a second army waiting to attack?

A ball formed in his chest, but as the power grew nearer, he sensed something else.

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“Wait, who is that?”

But as the auras grew closer, and he spotted an army stretched across the sky and charging along the ground in the horizon, his jaw dropped.

“Bloody fucking hell! Can’t we get a bloody break?”

They already faced their doom, pressed against an army of incredible size, with dwindling options, and somehow it had gotten worse? The damnable beast army had chosen this moment to heap atop them?

For the first time, Aaron felt even himself waver for a moment as he spotted thousands of beasts bearing down upon them.

“We-we gotta—”

Only a second away from calling their retreat, his words caught again. A silver light glowed intensely at the center of the approaching army.

“Zero?” Aaron’s eyes widened.

It was not the friend he had left behind to fight the Beast King. Even from here, he could tell Zero had undergone a transformation. Jagged golden stripes wrapped across his silver fur, and he radiated an immense aura that sent a shiver down even his spine.

“Zero… Zero’s The Beast King!”

The army of beasts fell upon the undead flanks like a tsunami, rolling up the undead and crushing them under hooves as the massive beasts stampeded against their undefended rear.

It happened so fast. Thousands of oversized beasts trampled through the undead ranks, and within seconds, they had scooped up thousands of bony corpses beneath their weight, spreading out and continuing their carnage across the necrophilic army.

Aaron could hardly believe it. In a flash, entire regiments of undead had been destroyed, completely unprepared for the attack from behind. Furthermore, they were struggling to stem the welling tides from washing over them.

And in the midst of the confusion rippling across the battlefield, Zero had led a squad of his elite beast underlings to the nearest construct and attacked it with their combined might.

Defiantly pushing forward, a man covered in wounds stepped up to his side, swinging a mace and taking out several undead.

“Aaron! Don’t worry about this, you’ve done enough! Go! Get those bastards We got this!”

Aaron looked over. He didn’t recognize the man, but he did recognize the fire that burned with unrelenting determination in the man’s eyes. He was covered in blood and looked like he was on death’s door, but he was not ready to give up.

Aaron snorted and nodded at the man before flying up to join Zero and his beast companions.

The moment he reached the barrier around the construct, he dug deep and started to swing with all his might, his powerful fists making the barrier tremble with every hit.

The difference from his previous attack was immediately noticeable. Alongside Zero and his beast elites, the barrier started to flicker, and undead within were being blown to pieces at rapid speed as they gave their lives to power it.

And at that moment, he heard a massively powerful reverberating blast, and a heavy bullet slammed straight into the barrier, and for a second, it dissipated.

A second too long for the undead sheltering within. They rushed into the barrier, and a slaughter broke out as Zero and his beasts took claw and fang to them.

Aaron ignored the fight and rushed straight to the obelisk, placing both his palms against it, and injecting it with all the aether and mana he could muster, cleansing it in seconds.

“One down,” he panted as Zero reached his side, the undead decimated.

“Look, Master!” Zero pointed a clawed finger toward the sky.

The battle might have been far from over, but the arcing beams of corrupted aether had been broken, and already they could feel the blanket of corrupted aether weakening as it thinned.

But it only took one quick look to confirm that it wasn’t anywhere near enough to turn the battle. There was still far too much aether hanging about, and the undead still held a massive numerical advantage. If they didn’t quickly weaken the aether further, all would be for naught, and the defenders wouldn’t last long.

“Come on! We gotta move quickly!”

Aaron shot toward the next construct, trailed by Zero and his beast elites, and before they got there, Soohyun joined, swinging her sword at the barrier. And only a second later, Ernest’s powerful sniper cannon joined in.

“That’s it!” Aaron shouted, and their powerful attacks had the barrier flickering within seconds of engaging it, and then it fell.

Just like the last, they washed across the back of the construct, slaughtering all within as Aaron cleansed the obelisk.

“We’re doing it! We’re actually doing it!” Aaron gasped as he hungrily ate food and cycled energy to recover from his ridiculous output.

The beast army was still trampling its way across the undead legion as well, and some of the defenders actually had a moment to down a potion and try to recover.

And with another obelisk cleansed, the corrupted aether weakened further, and he could see people gasping for air as they were able to breathe easier.

This was it. Just a little further and they would break the siege. With the corrupted aether, their combined armies would easily overpower the undead.

Aaron threw a fist toward the ground, killing the undead construct he stood on, and looked up, grinning wickedly as he turned his gaze on the third construct.

To think, he had thought this battle was lost only moments earlier, but now it was the undead falling under their heels, and victory was in sight.

But before he could launch himself toward the next construct, he felt a massive surge of aether.

“What even are you!?” Darius growled as he appeared from a deathly cloud of aether not far from him. “How dare you try to embarrass me in the eyes of the Death God! You shall suffer, and be risen again as my minion! I will use your own hands to kill the ones you love, and I’ll enjoy every moment of it!”

Aaron cracked his neck as he looked over toward Darius. This was what he had been waiting for, but the necromancer hadn’t come alone. Behind him were four elite undead, and even from a glance he could tell that they were stronger than any he had faced.

Amongst the elite undead was a fair-skinned, silver-haired, and very androgynous vampire, who flashed their fangs. An undead female commander that the System identified as Agatha stood beside the vampire with long, sharp claws. And what appeared to be an undead ogre named Garry towered over them, and beside Garry was what the System called a weretoad. But most importantly, Aaron figured that they were likely reincarnators gifted to Darius by the Death God to help conquer their world.

He tensed up as he quickly ate, desperately restoring energy and healing his soul for the fight ahead. Darius was bad enough, and he had no idea how he would fight him whilst taking on his elites, but he was damn well going to give it his best bloody shot.

“Master,” Zero said, stepping up to his side and eyeing one of the undead elites that looked like a rotting ogre.

“Dibs on the misonyeon,” Soohyun said, running a finger down her blade edge.

“The what?” asked Aaron. “That didn’t translate.”

“That one.” She pointed at the vampire-looking undead elite.

Aaron looked over at them and nodded. They were still outnumbered, but it was better than nothing. “Alright, who needs a fair fight, anyway.”

“I hope you ain’t forgetten’ about us,” Aaron’s relay stone buzzed with Ernest’s voice.

“Yeah, stupid,” Emmy sounded in the background. “Can’t believe this boomer.”

“Hah,” Aaron chuckled as a devilish smile crept across his face. “Alright. I’m counting on you lot. Keep these blokes busy whilst I teach this dog cunt a lesson.”

Corrupted aether welled up within Darius as his purple lips bent into a smile, and he prepared to fight.

It wasn’t going to be an easy fight, but Aaron much preferred this over chasing his minions around.